He is known as one of the leaders of the successful 1907 revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers, in which up to 800,000 vineyard smallholders and workers demonstrated to demand government action to end unfair competition.

[3] Ferroul ran for the Radical Socialist party in the legislative by-election of 8 April 1888 to replace Pierre Papinaud, who had been appointed governor of Nosy Be, Madagascar.

He voted against indefinite postponement of revision to the Constitution and against the prosecution of three deputies who were members of the Ligue des Patriotes.

He abstained from voting on the draft Lisbonne law restricting the freedom of the press and on the prosecution of General Boulanger.

[5] Friedrich Engels saw the elections as a success, counting Eugène Baudin, Thivrier and Félix Lachize as Marxists, and considering that Gustave Paul Cluseret and Ernest Ferroul were "bound to cast in their lot with the first three.

[7] In the general elections of 1893 he was defeated in the first round of voting by Henri Rouzaud(fr), republican candidate of the government.

[10] Ernest Ferroul advocated a tax strike if the government did not meet the winegrowers' demands by 10 June.

[10][8] Ferroul played on the secular opposition between North and South in calling on the crowd to stand united.

[10] The deadline for the ultimatum to the government came on 10 June 1907 and, standing on the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville of Narbonne, Ferroul announced his resignation as mayor and proclaimed the start of the municipal strike.

[10] On 12 June Ferroul spoke of the premier, "Monsieur Clemenceau, since the beginning of our demonstrations, has considered us as big children, good boys, but unaware of our actions.

[9] On 19 June Ferroul was arrested at dawn at his home in Narbonne by troops of the 139th Infantry Regiment and imprisoned in Montpellier.

[10] Ferroul ran again in the general elections of 24 April 1910 for the second constituency of Narbonne and was narrowly defeated by Albert Sarraut.